The Shining Star on My Tree
by LordByronMudkippington
Summary: Nico really should learn to keep her mouth shut. Now she has to figure out a way to fix things. Better think on that one. [Art by Noelclover.]


**Author's Notes:** Another one-shot Love Live, this time in the spirit of the holidays... in July. It's really, really hot here. Reading this over again, it's kind of corny, mostly lame, but hopefully we can forgive that in the spirit of the holidays. The burning, melting, non-existent holidays. One other thing: despite what this story may appear to be, it's not particularly a MakiXNico relationship thing. Here's the skinny: I hate Nico. When I originally watched the anime, I couldn't stand her, her attitude, her etc. Technically, this story is all your guys' fault, since a lot of the stories here involving Nico make her seem not as terrible. That's the mark of great writing.

* * *

"Why in the world did you say that?!"

"I-I didn't think she'd storm off like that!"

"You clearly didn't think at all..."

"D-don't blame me! It's her fault for believing in such silly things at this age!" Seven pairs of eyes, showing either anger or disappointment, bore down on her, causing her to involuntarily flinch. It was almost as if they still blamed her regardless of her killer argument. Well, maybe she could have been a little bit more tactful...

* * *

It had been Muse's second holiday get together, and though it hadn't been quite as extravagant as last year's - it would never reach such heights without taking place in the rich decadence that was a home of the Nishikino's - it had still turned out to be a pretty fun event. Well, except for one teensy little slip-up. Okay, maybe it was a bit bigger than that. Last year's party had one particular highlight - or was that a lowlight - where Nico had nearly told Maki that Santa wasn't real. That didn't seem like a big deal, right? Hell, anyone over the age of eight oughta know that Santa was just a tale parents told their kids so they'd be good during the holidays. For some reason though, lost to even such a big brain as Super Idol Niko's, Maki was still a believer - at fifteen, no less! - and the rest of Muse were perfectly okay with enabling the Scarlet Princess's naivety, and they forced her into silence over the issue. This year, however, something compelled her to 'spill the beans', as it were. Maybe it was just because the two were - naturally - arguing throughout the day, and she wanted something of a trump card. 'Tis the season or something. The effect was immediate.

"Oh come _on_ , Maki! You can't really believe in that anymore!" She had been incredibly annoyed, but she couldn't remember what they were arguing about. At some point, Maki must have mentioned good ol' Saint Nick, and Nico remembered just being unusually annoyed by what was more than likely just a passing mention.

"What are you talking about?"

"Santa-san!" Curious and somewhat alarmed eyes were turning in their direction, but neither of the arguing girls took any notice.

"I don't know what you're getting at." An indignant expression, a twirl of her red locks with a finger: it was annoying.

"Do I need to spell it out for you? San-ta-san-is-not-real." There. That would do it. The revelation would stun Maki into silence, giving Nico a well-earned victory. Besides, this would be good for her: no self-respecting high schooler should ever admit to believing in some children's fairy tale. She was just doing her a favor. The silence she had predicted did happen, but it was an uncomfortable silence, a 'you could hear a pin drop' type of quiet that made her feel a bit uneasy.

"He's... he's what?" Maki seemed more confused than stunned, violet eyes scanning the room as if willing their friends to dispute Nico, to admonish her for her lies. No response would come, though: everyone else seemed just as stunned as Nico had hoped Maki would be. Realization began to dawn on the redhead, who turned back to look at her twin-tailed senior with wide eyes and a growing blush on her cheeks. Embarrassment and anguish radiated on her face like one might expect on a girl who'd just gotten dumped in public.

"Not. Real. Geeze, Maki-chan, you can be such a ki-oof!" The end of her sentence was cut off when Maki shoved her roughly aside, heading for the door as she stormed out in embarrassment before anyone could stop her. Nico stared after her redheaded friend, eyes wide in surprise. That didn't go quite as she had expected. Suddenly, a pair of hands were on her shoulders and whipping her around, and she found herself face to face - well, once she'd looked up, anyway - with a surprisingly angry-looking Honoka.

"Why in the world did you say that?!"

* * *

Nico had left the party a short time later. She wasn't willing to stand there and let everyone stare accusingly at her the rest of the night. Besides, she hadn't done anything wrong! Maki was the one acting like a child. It was wrong to enable people, wasn't it? ...Maybe she had been too mean to the younger girl just to win an argument. She had won though. Why did she feel like she'd lost, though? "Grr, stupid Maki and her stupid childish beliefs."

She hadn't thought Maki would take it so hard. After all, they argued nearly every day, and nothing like this had ever happened before. Well, she'd never seen her look so... crestfallen before. "Wait, why am I trying to sympathize with her?! It's not like I shot her dog or something." Did she even have a dog? Probably not. Maki didn't seem the type. Whatever; it didn't matter. What did matter was she would have to attempt to get back into Maki's good graces before she went back to university and ended up getting a swarm of texts from Nozomi about how disappointed they all were. They'd wear out her phone battery. While walking back home, an idea came to her. It wasn't the best idea, but she didn't know what else to do. She ran the rest of the way home to try and set things in motion.

* * *

When she buzzed in at the Nishikino manor, it was Maki's mother who answered. She allowed the short university student passage into the house, telling her that Maki was in her room. That figured. Making her way up there, she decided to walk in without knocking. She quickly found what she was looking for, as the redhead was sulking on her bed. As soon as Maki realized Nico was there, she grabbed her pillow and threw it at the twin-tailed girl, which she caught with a quiet 'oof'. "Get out of here, Nico."

"Maki, look, I just wanted to apologize-"

"I told you to get out." Well, this wasn't going anywhere. With an exaggerated sigh, she ignored her angry junior and sat down on the bed, earning her an burning violet glare, but she wasn't physically forced away. Once it was apparent that she wasn't going anywhere, Maki turned right around and went right back to sulking for a bit before finally breaking the silence with a quiet muttering. "You could have told me in private..."

"What?" Nico was caught off guard by Maki suddenly speaking to her, and her mind ended up blanking out on the topic at hand.

"About Santa-san!" The redhead sat up and glared at Nico, a rather pronounced blush on her cheeks. "If you were so set on telling me he wasn't... h-he wasn't real, why didn't you tell me in private?"

"Uh..." Well, the _correct_ answer was because she wanted to win an argument and didn't care who heard, but that sounded strangely callous now that she thought about it. "Why does it matter? You were going to learn eventually that he was just a fairy tale."

"What kind of reasoning is that?! You humiliated me in front of all our friends!" That admission caught Nico off guard, if only because she could count on one hand the times where Maki actually said how she was really feeling. It clearly caught her off guard as well, for her face grew as red as her hair and she slapped a hand over her mouth, though it was too late to take her words back now.

"S-so what? I've embarrassed you before and you've never acted like _that_ before." At least that was true. Their whole schtick was trying to annoy or embarrass the other, so why was this one any different? She could tell that Maki was weighing whether to be honest about she was feeling - gasp - a second time, or to just clam up and let it go. To Nico's continued surprise, she chose the former.

"Th-that was something I believed in, N-Nico. Y-you made..." She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. "You made fun of my beliefs in front of everyone. That's completely different than before." She was looking down at the bed, still clearly embarrassed and not willing to look Nico in the eye. Still, to Nico it was a silly belief, and it was wholly surprising that someone as smart as Maki could still believe in it at this age. Then again, it was clearly distressing her, loathe as she might have been to admit such a thing. Nico knew she'd feel pretty bummed if someone just shouted to everyone that she was a piss-poor idol. Well, that would never happen, because no one could put stock into such an obvious lie - everyone loved Nico-Nico-nii! - but she got it, kinda.

"Look, I want to make it up to you, okay? Will you at least let me take you to my place?" That got her a suspicious look from Maki. "N-not like that, you pervert! I just have something I want to give to you... Not like that! It's a present!... I swear, just... Come on, please?" She could tell that Maki was most reluctant to leave, especially with the person she'd just been feuding with, but with a reluctant sigh she stood up and started to walk out of her room without a word. Breathing a sigh of relief, Nico hopped up and followed her out.

* * *

The trip to the Yazawa household was a quiet one. Nico hated it, but despite attempting to draw conversation out, her redheaded companion wouldn't take the bait. So they made their way there in silence, Maki's face having returned to that normal mask they were all used to seeing. No one would dare say that though: she'd get crazy indignant for anyone even suggesting she was hiding her feelings, no matter how true it was nor how obvious it was to everyone sans her. Eventually, however, they finally reached the house, and Nico led her friend indoors, where a quiet-for-once house greeted them. Without an explanation of what exactly this 'gift' was, Nico grabbed Maki's hand and pulled the surprised and struggling redhead towards the corner of the house, where a sparsely-decorated Christmas tree stood. Underneath it was a single wrapped present, and Nico quickly scooped it up and presented it to Maki. "Here, open it."

With a confused look, Maki tore off the wrapping paper and opened the box hidden beneath. Her confusion didn't stop when she took a gander at what was inside the box: a star. Specifically, a Christmas tree-topping star. "A star?"

"I wanted to get you something, to show you that I was sorry, but I didn't have a lot of time and I don't really have a lot of money to buy something a rich-ass person like yourself would enjoy." While she was explaining herself, Maki's eyes were drifting between Nico, the star, and the tree behind her. "And I know that the holidays mean a lot more to you than they do to me, so, I dunno, I thought maybe you'd want to put the star on our tree, you know?" It was lame - corny even, but mostly lame - but she didn't have a clue what to give Maki, and she knew a mere apology wouldn't have worked, which had already been proven. This just had come to mind in a spur-of-the-moment holiday cheer brainstorm, and she had hoped that it would come across more in that way than in a lazy manner. "I know it's lame, but you seem to love that kind of thing, and I just thought-" Her thoughts were interrupted once more, this time by the surprising addition of a warm body to her own. If anything, the fact that she was standing there being hugged by Maki of all people was the most shocking event yet.

"I guess I can let your stupidity slide, just this once," Maki whispered, pulling back with a soft smile on her face. Nico just shook her head and chuckled, gesturing towards the tree.

"Just put it on the damn tree before this gets awkward." That itself got a rare laugh from the redhead, who nodded and stood on her tip-toes to place the star gently on top of the tree. At the very least, she could pretend that this was her once again getting Maki to do her work for her, though perhaps it was more embarrassing to admit that she was just too short to reach the top of the tree without a ladder. _'Curse this incredibly cute body!'_

* * *

They hung around her house for a little bit longer before Maki had to leave. As Nico showed her the door, the redhead gave her senior another soft smile. "Thank you, Nico. It, uh, it really means a lot." She was blushing slightly, and as usual she turned her head slightly to look elsewhere. _'Typical Maki.'_

"Really, it's no big deal. I just didn't want you moping about the entire holidays, that's all." Maki just smiled as she stepped out into the winter air, giving Nico a wave before beginning her departure.

"Yeah yeah. Still, it was sweet of you... for once. Still, I don't know if Santa-san will forgive you for all the other naughty things you've done." With a grin, she turned around and started walking away. Nico softly chuckled in response, then felt her smile fall as she gave what Maki said a second thought.

"Wait, what?! I have _not_ been naughty!"


End file.
